PARABLES - WEEK ONE - DAY FOUR
Hello and welcome to your Daily Devos following our Prophet messages at 29:11! Take some time today to read through the scriptures provided, meditate on the lessons learned that are applicable for all of us from this week and journal your prayers. Have an amazing week 29:11 Church!
THEME SCRIPTURE:
16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’
26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant!
— Matthew 25:16-26 ESV
TODAY’S PASSAGE:
27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
— Matthew 25:27-30 ESV
REFLECTION:
They say that some of the best leaders are great because they are also the best learners. As children, we spend almost the entire time growing and learning. We are being taught academic practices from school. We absorb social skills from our family and friends. We learn about our spiritual lives from church, our word, and the spiritual leaders in our lives. Some people choose to continue educating themselves in college and beyond, seeking out bachelors, masters, and for the really dedicated, doctoral degrees. Then we get in our careers and we have to learn all anew.
This growing of our knowledge for the first 20 to 30 years of our lives seems constant. However, as time goes on, there also seems to be a growing desire to stop learning, and start maintaining. Apathy starts to slowly deep into our lives, and like a silent tiger, it completely grabs ahold of us without even knowings. To a lot of us, it makes sense to maintain and be apathetic towards life. We did the time. We figured it out. Why keep struggling to learn and grow when we can stick to the status quo?
Well unfortunately, as easy and nice as it sound, maintaining is actually not congruent with a healthy faith life. You see, God calls us not to maintain, but to multiply. We are called to continue learning, continue growing, and continued multiplying. It is through hard work and grit that we do this good work of God. He is not calling us to a specific level of multiplication. For some the multiplication will be large and for others small. It is not the amount that God calls us out, but simply the act. It is in obedience to multiply and not maintain that we find the blessing of hard work.
THOUGHTS TO PONDER:
Think about and write down the treasures and resources that God has given you to manage and steward well. Take a moment to ask God if you are managing those things well. Are you multiplying what God has given you, or simply maintaining? Multiplication looks different for different people and different resources, so allow God to help guide you in this practice of self reflection.
